CF-29 Mk4 + Corsair F120 SSD (Hell yeah!)

Just fired it up. The XP Pro vlite installation i made finds the SSD and seems to install it fine. I had to remove three small pieces of the shock absorbing thingy, but it should still protect the hard drive even if i was using a normal mechanical one.

I bought this adapter, and its working. Now this seller doesn't seem to have any left, but the other do. They're around 3-5 USD each.

I'll check back in an an hour when the install is complete.

Cheers

EDIT:


Gonna bench it for real as well. But preliminary results (clean os, no drivers, no tweaks) it maxes out on 65mb/second

EDIT2:
------------------------------------------------------------------------


(I) Battery Life:

Most SSD's are advertised as low/lower power than a "traditional spinner", your adapter consumes additional power to do the translation. Compared to the stock drive, does it have a negative effect on battery life? if so, by how much? what are you using to measure battery life?

There is very little difference in battery life with the SSD compared to the HDD. I tested it with both drives and came up with around five minutes less battery life with the SSD. Please note however that there were several cycles on the battery between the two tests. The difference can also be attributed to a margin of error.

Western Digital hard drive: 3 hours, 34 minutes, 22-24 seconds until emergency shutdown at 3% battery capacity.

Corsair Solid State Drive: 3 hours, 29 minutes, 48-50 second until emergency shutdown at 3% battery capacity.

Settings during test:
"Always on" power setting.
Full brightness
Wifi on and connected
Full CPU load with OCCT.

Tools:
OCCT
Stopwatch
Some godawful physics homework i could do in front of the computer.

The battery in question is a worn but calibrated yellow tab battery.

EDIT: New info.

The adapter requires an additional overhead of 0.8W, with no support for "power down" during standby. (Source: NBR HP2510p owners Lounge)

// Courtesy of Orange_george



(II) Operating Temperature:

The inclusion of the adapter adds an additional heat load, what effect does this have on the operating temperature? what are you using to measure the temperature?

I measured between 46 and 50 degrees celsius, with the 120gb WD drive the Toughbook came with, in load. With the SSD however, I've yet to pass 48. And that was before i replaced the heat pads and my CF-29 loaded on around 90-95 degrees celsius. The temperature dropped by several degrees, despite the fact that there is an extra heat source.

As for the operating temperature of the Toughbook itself, there is no difference what i can see.



(III) Trim Support:

For those members using Win7, does the adapter support the Trim command?

No Support for Win 7 TRIM Command. (Source: JMicron Technical Support)

// Courtesy of Orange_George



(IV) MIL-STD-810F:

With regard to Shock Loading (Drop Test) your toughie was shipped certified to the above compliance. The Shock Loading & Vibration tolerance of SSD's is greater than the stock drive, but the caddy has been modified to accommodate the adapter, would it pass the original factory drop test from a 90cm height onto a hard surface without I/O errors? on twenty six consecutive drops?


I will not expose my Toughbook to that kind of treatment voluntarily.
I removed only four pieces of foam from the caddy. It should not have any impact (pardon the pun) on the shock tolerance.
However, the SSD still remains operational without errors after i dropped the caddy twice from a height of 1 meter onto a wooden floor. The entire Toughbook survived a fall from the roof of a modified Dodge Ram 1500 without giving any errors. I estimate the drop close to 3 meters in height onto my foot. (Steel toe boots ftw)

(V)

There are numerous Sata-Pata Adapters on the market, some are said not to be able to resume from System Standby, is there any noticeable issue?

Yes, that is true. Mine wouldn't wake from hibernate or standby and it wouldn't reboot either. It would freeze with a black screen.

However, once i aligned the partition, those two issues disappeared. I don't know why a incorrect alignment would cause this, but a correct alignment solved it. I haven't had any issues since then, and I use standby a lot. I've tried it dozens of times, and a five or six just now to make sure. Nada. Works like a charm.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Chuffing Nora, if your thumbnails are that big I'm glad I'm not starring at your fist.

The same as a Pata HM160HC then! :yes:

o.g.

 

Hey what happened to you

Anyway 65mb/sec is double the throughput of the standard 5400rpm drive

Did you do a comparison on the boot time?

 

Sorry about the size, lads. I have no idea how to make thumbnails here.

Anyway, i haven't tweaked anything yet, but it boots up in about 40 seconds. I'm pretty sure I can shave a few secs of that. Either way its a clear difference. I'm pretty sure my hdd did 1 minute +.

And about the speed, it didn't get any better after i installed the drivers. i average on 62-63mb/second. But its still maxed out on 65mb. I doubt can get it to run any faster. Do you lot know any good SSD tweaks fo XP Pro (SP3)?

 

I think you missed a few drivers

 

That pic was taken about two minutes after it booted up for the first time with the ssd. Its all good now.

 

As of yet, NO. But I would start with double checking your "Partition Offset" if it's wrong, anything else will be a waste of time.

o.g.

 

ta for the tip, mate. i just looked into it. seems i have the same symptoms as OCZ wrote about on their forums regarding partition offset on their ssd drives. they claim 10-15 percent performance improvement. let put that to the test then.

EDIT: screw this. i'm not gonna reinstall this bloody thing again. i've reinstalled win 7 and xp nearly ten times since i got it.

EDIT2: I buggered up my xp install when i was attempting the alignment without formatting. So now i had to reinstall. Good news that i used a win7 disc to align before i installed xp. so now its all good. it ddint get any faster though. in fact, the write speed dropped 7mb/sec.

 

@ares,

I've just got back from the "Public House" after consuming several glasses of "Golden Amber Nectar". From previous experience, I don't think you guy's can handle my hum-or when I'm under the influence, so I'll keep it short & sweat

Win7 creates the correct offset by default! so why have you used XP if you've got Win7 at your disposal.

Secondly, your not the first person to use a crappy $2.00 sata to pata bridge when everything goes quiet, is it because "All in the Garden is Rosy" or is it because It's all gone "Ping Pong" ??

Can you do a CDM3 benchmark & post the results, somebody may be able to determine if it's the drive or the bridge board that's at fault.

I'll throw a third one in while I'm here, do you know what translation chip is on the bridge board....hint, remove the "QC Passed Sticker".

o.g. << under the influence>>

 

Noted.

Because Win 7 runs about as smoothly as an elephant runs, in mud, with its bloody legs chained to the ground. I used Win 7 to format the drive, then aborted the installation and installed XP without formatting the drive for XP.

I'll have to get back to you on this one. Maybe if I have a few drinks I'll understand what you meant by this. And those adapter work fine. I've been using them in other computers for years.

I'll do it in a bit.

It says: JM20330 (JMicron)

EDIT: After yet another bloody reinstall (with correct partition alignment) here is the bench:

 

Ah, I've obviously misunderstood your comments about your boot time, it doesn't sound particularly fast considering the drive your using. I recall both toughasnails & Deere Dude(Shawn) making comments in the past regarding the same or a similar adaptor. I'll take it that I'm urinating up the wrong tree.

Sounds like your good to go,

I can use your CDM figures for my own comparisons when you get time.

thanks.

o.g.

 

Yeah, its not particularly fast, considering i was looking at 220+ mb/sec in my other machine. But its still faster than then the hard drive i had in my TB when i got it. Besides, even if it wasn't faster, I'd still use it for the sole reason that its fully shock proof. And the connector on it is broken anyway, so i can only use in in laptops. I have a SSD in every laptop i have, so i really didn't need it. This way, at least my TB get a good SSD and the drive get a new life.

Anyway, i'll run a few more benchmarks in a bit so you can average my speeds.

 

Here is a thread where we benchmark the ide drive

http://forum.notebookreview.com/pan...using-ide-sata-adapter-vs-samsunghm160hc.html

And this thread where they get into the ssd's
http://forum.notebookreview.com/panasonic/503103-problem-ssd-cooldrive-ide-sata-adapter.html

 

Ta, mate.

Btw, i dont think it make much diffrence, but the cooldrives adapter is 19.99$ atm. But it seems its the same jmicron chip that i use.

 

WHAT???

My comments regarding the HM160HC were intended to be "Jovial Banter", I didn't envisage being hit with "Both Barrels", so if you think that's funny you've got a twisted sense of humour.

We do say "Talk is Cheap", there could be other forum members claiming to get better results from a CF-29, but I've yet to see a benchmark better than that.

It looks like that CRAPPY $2.00 board works.

o.g.

 

I lost the quote in my above post for some reason.

 

Tell you the truth, I'm considering getting a Cooldrives adapter since its on sale now. But Considering that it uses the sake JMicron chip, I'm kinda stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Right. So I promised benchmarks. There ya go.

 

Dude, first class results.

Not sure where your quoted 40 second boot time comes from.

Those figures in a CF-29 are saying "Greased Lightning".

The HM160HC 5400rpm is a considerable improvement over the stock 4200rpm drive. The 4K Read/Writes are a long way behind yours.

Here's the comparison.

o.g.

EDIT: I don't understand why you want a cooldrives adaptor??

 

Ta, mate. I can honestly say that i feel the difference. Now that the stuttering and reboot freeze is gone (partition alignment), it runs like a dream. just gotta throw in a chiclet keyboard and an internal GPS and i'm good to go.

My boot time comes from the lovely app called bootracer. EDIT: Tweaked it a bit, down to 37 seconds.


Th reason i'm considering the cooldrives adapter is because I've read a lot of positive results about it. if there is an adapter that can boost my speed even a wee bit. it should be that one. but my problem is that it uses the same JMircon chip. so in theory, there shouldn't be a difference.

 

Got ya, for the purpose of testing the log-on is usually by-passed so the time quoted is from the splash screen to the desktop, so that clears that one up.

Note sure what thread you've been reading? the overall feedback on those is a mixed bag of results. Somebody posted a link to another forum sometime ago, the consensus is they do NOT work with all drives, if you get one & it's o.k. it could be more by good luck than by good judgement!

o.g.

 

Its i havent read much about the cooldrive adapter here on nbr. Mostly foreign (for you) sites. But you do have a point. Some drives dont work with it. Those that do however, have great speeds. But i'm feeling pretty content with the adapter i have. Only reason i was interested is becuase it was on sale. 19.99USD instead of 38.99USD.

Edit, i always run the boot test from power on to an open my documents folder. That is, when i dont have an app to test it.

 

Don't hurry because of the price...it's been that price since I bought one from them over 1 1/2 years ago when we started doing that mod.

 

@ares93,

Is there any additional relevant information to go with this "Mod" or is that it, end of thread.

o.g.

 

Basically yeah. There's not much more i can say aside from: Don't forget to align the partition(s)!

 

I've chosen the wrong time to ask for an up-date, there is several hours of boxing on three different channels

Catch you later....much later.

o.g.

 

Medals at the 2012 Olympics shouldn't be a problem if the current ABA Championships are anything to go by.

ares, here's your opportunity to elevate your status in the toughbook community to "World Championship Level".

I previously posted a link to the thread "To Mod or Not to Mod", in which forum member Sparky gave his insight into how to undertake a "Mod", in short, you post as much information as is needed to enable other members to complete the same "Mod" if they so choose.

So, in no particular order the potential issues surrounding this "Mod" are as follows;

(i) Battery Life:

Most SSD's are advertised as low/lower power than a "traditional spinner", your adapter consumes additional power to do the translation. Compared to the stock drive, does it have a negative effect on battery life? if so, by how much? what are you using to measure battery life?

(ii) Operating Temperature:

The inclusion of the adapter adds an additional heat load, what effect does this have on the operating temperature? what are you using to measure the temperature?

(iii) Trim Support:

For those members using Win7, does the adapter support the Trim command?

(iv) MIL-STD-810F:

With regard to Shock Loading (Drop Test) your toughie was shipped certified to the above compliance. The Shock Loading & Vibration tolerance of SSD's is greater than the stock drive, but the caddy has been modified to accommodate the adapter, would it pass the original factory drop test from a 90cm height onto a hard surface without I/O errors? on twenty six consecutive drops?

It's your "Mod" buddy, have fun.

o.g.

P.S. You've got three lives & you CAN phone a friend.

P.P.S. Sunday is Remembrance Sunday, I would rather you lay a wreath at a local War Memorial than answer these queries.

 

Unfortunately I don't have any war memorial nearby due to the fact that the last war in Sweden was 200 years ago. Nonetheless, I asked my grandmother to leave a wreath at the WWII and WWI memorials in Hungary. My girlfriend is leaving one from me in Birmingham and i spoke to a friend's widow and she would leave one from me in California, I'm not sure where. Only been in California once, in Los Angeles.

Even though I'm not from the commonwealth countries, Remembrance day is quite important for me. One of the reason being that I have a lot of American and British friends. Also my girlfriend is half British.

My mother is in the reserves, both my grandfathers were in the military, my great-grandfather lost his leg in Russia during WWI. And I've already signed up for the Swedish Army.

RIP Andy (1975-2008) USMC (2001-2008)
Semper fi


Now to the mod. Enough about war and death, I need to think about something else:

(I) Battery Life:

Most SSD's are advertised as low/lower power than a "traditional spinner", your adapter consumes additional power to do the translation. Compared to the stock drive, does it have a negative effect on battery life? if so, by how much? what are you using to measure battery life?

There is very little difference in battery life with the SSD compared to the HDD. I tested it with both drives and came up with around five minutes less battery life with the SSD. Please note however that there were several cycles on the battery between the two tests. The difference can also be attributed to a margin of error.

Western Digital hard drive: 3 hours, 34 minutes, 22-24 seconds until emergency shutdown at 3% battery capacity.

Corsair Solid State Drive: 3 hours, 29 minutes, 48-50 second until emergency shutdown at 3% battery capacity.

Settings during test:
"Always on" power setting.
Full brightness
Wifi on and connected
Full CPU load with OCCT.

Tools:
OCCT
Stopwatch
Some godawful physics homework i could do in front of the computer.

The battery in question is a worn but calibrated yellow tab battery/

(II) Operating Temperature:

The inclusion of the adapter adds an additional heat load, what effect does this have on the operating temperature? what are you using to measure the temperature?

I measured between 46 and 50 degrees celsius, with the 120gb WD drive the Toughbook came with, in load. With the SSD however, I've yet to pass 48. And that was before i replaced the heat pads and my CF-29 loaded on around 90-95 degrees celsius. The temperature dropped by several degrees, despite the fact that there is an extra heat source.

As for the operating temperature of the Toughbook itself, there is no difference what i can see.

(III) Trim Support:

For those members using Win7, does the adapter support the Trim command?

I have not tested Windows 7 due to the wholly under-performing graphics driver. However, the Windows 7 installation recognizes it as an SSD drive, so theoretically TRIM should work.



(IV) MIL-STD-810F:

With regard to Shock Loading (Drop Test) your toughie was shipped certified to the above compliance. The Shock Loading & Vibration tolerance of SSD's is greater than the stock drive, but the caddy has been modified to accommodate the adapter, would it pass the original factory drop test from a 90cm height onto a hard surface without I/O errors? on twenty six consecutive drops?


I will not expose my Toughbook to that kind of treatment voluntarily.
I removed only four pieces of foam from the caddy. It should not have any impact (pardon the pun) on the shock tolerance.
However, the SSD still remains operational without errors after i dropped the caddy twice from a height of 1 meter onto a wooden floor. The entire Toughbook survived a fall from the roof of a modified Dodge Ram 1500 without giving any errors. I estimate the drop close to 3 meters in height onto my foot. (Steel toe boots ftw)

 

ares, I see you have up-dated your first post, are you now changing your forum user name to; Son of Karma16?

Good show on the additional information.

Question (iii) Trim Support, from your reply I now have a recollection of reading an article on first generation controllers, I never saved the article so I cannot quote, but some of the early Jmicron controllers use the same chip that's on your adapter, it was said not to support Trim.

The question I forgot to ask is:

(v) There are numerous Sata-Pata Adapters on the market, some are said not to be able to resume from System Standby, is there any noticeable issue?

o.g.

 

Sorry, i don't get the reference.

Ta, mate. Like I said, I never tried it. So i cant say either way. I will however update my post if you can give me a reference. I will update with a big "UNCERTAIN" stamp until then.

Yes, that is true. Mine wouldn't wake from hibernate or standby and it wouldn't reboot either. It would freeze with a black screen.

However, once i aligned the partition, those two issues disappeared. I dont know why a incorrect alignment would cause this, but a correct alignment solved it. I havent had any issued since then, and i use standby a lot. I've tried it dozens of times, and a five or six just now to make sure. Nada. Works like a charm.

 

Paragon Alignment Tool is the software I used for xp with my ssd drives

 

I didnt work for me. Then again, i used an older version. My school has all kinds of obscure software, i was lucky enough to find a disk with that paragon app.

 

I used V2.0 , a few years ago
My current xp loads are all on regular hard drives now

 

Then maybe I was the one who frakked something up. (pardon the bsg reference )

 

Small up-date,

Battery Life:

The adapter requires an additional overhead of 0.8W, with no support for "power down" during standby. (Source: NBR HP2510p owners Lounge)

TRIM:

No Support for Win 7 TRIM Command. (Source: JMicron Technical Support)

o.g.

 

Danke schon! Will update this instant.